With the recent introduction of bakery set up in commercial shopping outlets or the bakery departments in supermarkets, a premium is placed on working space and flexibility of product production. As many of the products are produced in relatively small runs, the economics of a bakery of this type is generally improved if as many types of product can be produced from as few dough types as possible and the number of pieces of equipment used to produce the different products can be minimised.
Bread moulders are conventionally used to receive a piece of pre-weighted dough and mould to a desired shape for a specific bakery product before it is proved and baked.
In an effort to diversify product lines from single dough sources, it is often desirable to use the same dough for loaf production as roll production. For roll production this involves moulding the dough, dividing the dough into appropriately sized portions and then shaping the dough into final product form prior to baking. Round bread rolls are commonly produced by dividing off a portion of dough, rounding it into a rough ball and compressing the ball into a flattish circular shape. The flattened ball of dough is then compressed under a plate where the round disc is cut into similar sized portions. The disc then orbits for a predetermined period of time and each roll portion of dough is rounded up into a ball. The balls are then placed on baking trays where they are given a final proof and then baked. While there are several other methods of producing round rolls, all generally require the round roll to be made from a larger dough portion. This larger dough portion generally comes directly from the mixing machine.
It is well known that dough that is first sheeted out and flattened before further refining creates a better texture because the sheeting process aligns the cells in the dough. Such sheeting is difficult in round roll production as the sheeting process can overwork the dough making it difficult to hold its round shape during baking.